


Temporal

by achievement_huntresss



Series: Flan's MH/CL44 fics [1]
Category: Marble Hornets
Genre: enjoy i guess, idk what this is lol, it was a theory back in the day so who knows, it's 2018 why am i writing marble hornets fanfic again, jessica is skully, shrugs, the comic might prove it lol, this isn't canon BUT IT COULD BE, tim returns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-05 12:20:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16367675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/achievement_huntresss/pseuds/achievement_huntresss
Summary: After seeing reports of a mysterious masked person in the area of Rosswood Park, Tim decides to head back to where the nightmares began to check up on Jessica. He quickly finds that Jessica may have known more than she let on the last time they spoke.





	1. Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry in advance if this is bad or OOC, it's been a hot minute since I watched marble hornets.
> 
> Enjoy!

Even though he'd moved quite a few states away, Tim still occasionally checks the news from the area of Rosswood Park. For the most part, it's just to check and see if the mysterious disappearances and missing children reports have ceased yet (which they unfortunately haven't), but he also checks to make sure Jessica's name isn't in the papers. For better or worse, Jessica had remained in the same town Tim had bid farewell to her in nearly four years ago. Tim had called her a few times over the years, just to make sure she was doing alright, and he'd never seen her name in the news, so he'd never really had a reason to worry.

Until now.

Recently there had been many reported sightings and blurry photographs around Rosswood of a person running around in a mask. This in and of itself wasn't much to worry Tim, if anything it made him grateful no one really had smartphones back when he and Jay were running around like lunatics in the park. No, that wasn't the part of it that worried Tim. About a week ago, he found a news article about a little girl who had disappeared in Rosswood, but was later found outside the county hospital with not a scratch on her. The little girl claimed that the masked person had saved her from "The Tall Man" who had taken her deeper into the woods. Those three words had instantly turned Tim's blood to ice and he immediately called Jessica.

Thankfully she'd been on her break at work and assured him that she was fine. No crazy "tall man" had been spotted near her house and she always carried pepper spray in her purse. That probably would have alleviated some of Tim's anxieties if the "tall man" the girl had mentioned was an actual man and not some freaky thing no one knew what to make of (Tim had still sometimes checked Jay's old Twitter to find DMs from aspiring filmmakers asking how they did the effects for "The Operator". After enough of those messages, he'd privated the videos and Jay's Twitter around two years ago.) After a few minutes of them chatting some more, Jessica mentioned that her roommate recently moved back to Florida and she had an extra room "Y'know, if you ever want to come visit."

And that's how Tim found himself driving five hours back to a place he swore he'd never return to. He wasn't necessarily sure why he'd agreed in the first place. Maybe he wanted to talk to someone that wasn't his coworkers or his doctor. Maybe a part of him still wanted to investigate the park and make sure Jessica was really okay (leftovers from Jay's influence on his personality, no doubt). Maybe he wanted to burn the entire forest down and get some real closure. He wasn't sure.

All he knew was that, despite her bubbly-ness on the phone call, Jessica had seemed a little off to Tim. Her tone wasn't as light as it usually was on their phone calls, and she'd sounded a bit panicked when she'd answered the phone. She'd explained she'd just gotten on her break and work had been hectic when Tim asked, but that excuse sounded lame, even to Tim. 

So Tim had a plan. Find out what was going on with the masked person, make sure Jessica was okay, maybe convince her to move out of the area (she had also mentioned her lease was up in a month and she still hadn't found a place to live yet), and do it all as quickly as possible without garnering unwanted attention.

\----  
It was around 6 PM when Tim pulled his car into Jessica's driveway. As he got out of the car, he noticed the curtain in the front window of the small house move slightly, as if Jessica had been watching him drive up. Tim stretched, and popped another piece of gum into his mouth. He'd quit smoking a few months back and had found gum was pretty good at helping him when he craved a cigarette, usually when he was anxious. Something about this whole situation really had him on edge. He shut his car door and locked it and started to make his way up the little sidewalk to her front door.

The red front door opened and Jessica pushed open the storm door. She was smiling. "Tim!"

Tim grinned back. She stepped off the porch and pulled him into a hug. It took a split second for Tim to hug back. He really hadn't been hugged in a while, and the only socialization he'd gotten in the past few months were therapists and coworkers. The hug was nice, but short, and Jessica pulled back, arms still on his arms, giving him an actual good look at her.

Jessica looked... well, she looked awful. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun and didn't look like it had been washed in a while. She looked thin, her cheekbones incredibly pronounced and the baggy sweatshirt she was wearing seemed to swallow her up. The bags under her eyes were large and dark, and Tim noticed her hands were shaking slightly as she let go of him and ushered him through the door into the living room.

The house itself was clean, almost unnaturally so. There were no decorations anywhere that Tim could see, no photos or posters or paintings. As if sensing Tim unasked question, Jessica waved her hand at the wall and said something about her lease coming up so she'd already packed everything up. There was a large pile of papers and folders on the coffee table and a blanket thrown over the couch like whoever was sitting there had sat up in a hurry. The TV was still on, playing some reality show about housewives or something. Jessica led him through the living room into the kitchen and offered him a seat at the small table by a window.

"Can I get you anything? I have coffee, I think my roommate might have left a box or two of tea that I can make some sweet tea with if you want that..." Jessica said, moving towards the cupboards over the counters. Tim noticed there wasn't a lot of food left in the cupboards, and his anxiety increased even more. Had she been eating at all?

"Uh, just some water is okay." He said at last. Jessica nodded and opened the fridge (again, looking too empty) and pulled a pitcher out of the door. She filled a cup she'd grabbed from the cupboard and made herself a cup of coffee. She brought both drinks over to the table and sat opposite of Tim. He thanks her and took a long drink of water, trying to prepare himself for what he was about to ask her.

After a comfortable silence, Tim spoke up. "So... How have you been?"

Jessica set her coffee cup down and smiled, although it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Oh, I've been fine. I know I look pretty bad, but work's been super crazy lately and I've been staying up late just trying to catch up."

"Right..." Tim said, taking another drink of water. He sighed. "Jessica, you don't have to lie to me. What's going on?"

She looked down at her cup, fidgeting with the handle. "I don't know what you mean. I'm-"

"Fine, yeah, I know. I don't know how you define 'fine' but in my world, fine means you're eating, sleeping, and showering." Tim reached across the table and took her hand, causing her to look up at him. "What's wrong, Jess?"

"I remember."

Tim's heart plummeted to his feet. "What do you-"

"I remember! I remember Jay and Alex and Amy! I remember Rosswood! I remember the guy in the hood and the guy in the mask and the thing that's out there!" Jessica jumped out of her seat and pointed at the window partially hidden by the curtain. "I remember you, Tim! You lied to me! You told me Jay was alright!" She sank down into her chair, elbows on the table and her face in her hands. "I used to be so sick of forgetting and now I don't want to remember anything. What the fuck happened?"

Before Tim can say anything, Jessica looks up at him, tears now running freely down her face. "I watched the videos."

"You- what?"

"The videos on YouTube. Jay's videos, Alex's tapes. I watched them all before they got taken down," she hiccuped. "I had to know what happened. I had to fill in the blanks!"

Tim started to stand up, panic rising. "We have to get out of here, get you out of here. If you remember then you're in danger-"

"I've been in danger this entire fucking time!" Jessica screamed. Tim sat back down, eyes wide. "You fucking left me here, Tim!" She began to sob. "You fucking left me here, Tim. After everything that happened! Everyone we know and loved fucking died and YOU LEFT ME WITH THE FUCKING MURDERER!" She crumpled onto the table.

Tim didn't want to argue. He didn't want to think about how long she'd been remembering these awful things alone. He definitely didn't want to try to explain his reasoning for leaving her behind. He quietly stood up and moved to the chair next to Jess and pulled her into his arms. She continued to cry but accepted the embrace, crying into his shoulder instead of the table. Tim was glad he brought a few extra clothes in his car, because he was definitely going to need a new shirt after this.

\----  
After a long, therapeutic cry, Tim had coaxed Jessica into moving to the couch. He'd wrapped her in a blanket and turned off the TV. After promising to be right back, he headed back into the kitchen to clean up the mess they'd made. He also found that box of tea bags she'd mentioned earlier and boiled some water to make some for her. Tim eventually headed back into the living room, mug of tea in hand and sat down next Jessica on the couch.

Jessica took the tea from him with a small, grateful small. She took a sip and closed her eyes, as if savoring the feeling of something that wasn't coffee flowing through her body. A brief silence took over and Tim was trying to find something to say when Jessica spoke up.

"So-" she cleared her throat. "So, why did you leave me here?"

Tim inwardly cringed. He'd hoped she wouldn't start off with that question. "I, well... You didn't remember. You were safe."

She raised an eyebrow. He hastily tried to explain more. "I mean, I wasn't exactly thinking straight at that point in time. Jay had just died, so had Brian, and Alex..." She nodded, so he continued. "Plus everytime we talked on the phone after that, you never asked about anything, you never really seemed like anything was wrong. I guess I should have been better about checking up on you."

"I wanted to tell you, y'know?" Jessica sighed and put her mug on the coffee table. "Everytime we called each other after I started remembering, I wanted to tell you and ask questions."

"Why didn't you?" Tim asks before he can stop himself. He hastily puts his hands up apologetically. "Sorry, that makes it sound like it's on you, it really isn't. You don't have to answer-"

Jessica sighs. "I don't know honestly. I think maybe I wanted to believe it was all in my head. That nothing had happened and you didn't know about it because it was all just a bad dream or hallucination or something. Then I found the videos and... well... here we are."

Tim is suddenly struck by a thought. "You've been taking your meds, haven't you?"

"The pills? Yeah. I never stopped." Tim breathes a sigh of relief and Jessica laughs. "After I watched the videos, I kept taking more and more a day to stop remembering. Then recently, I don't know, it's gotten worse?"

"Worse?"

She reaches for her tea and takes another sip. "I've been having... blackouts I guess. Like I'll be driving home from work and then I wake up in my car in the parking lot of Walmart like 6 hours later." She groans and rubs at her eyes. "I think I'm losing my fucking mind."

Tim was suddenly feeling a very bad sense of deja vu. "How often does that happen?" Jessica looks up at him, taken aback by the sudden change in his tone.

"I mean, it started about a year ago and it was about once a month. Then it kept escalating until it was almost every night a week. I started working from home so I wouldn't ever have to leave the house, except for my doctor's appointments." She laughs bitterly and motions towards the kitchen. "I'm sure you've noticed I haven't gone grocery shopping in two weeks."

Tim's starting to connect the dots. He shakes his head slightly, not wanting to project his theories onto Jessica. Instead he takes her hand again and smiles. "If you want, I'll go grocery shopping with you tomorrow. I'll even drive so if you do blackout, I can take us back here where we'll figure it out together."

Jessica huffs out a laugh. "Sounds good to me."

They settle into silence again, except this time it's more companionable than anything. Jessica goes to turn on the TV, then pauses and turns back to Tim. "There is one other thing that's been happening besides the blackouts."

"What's that?"

She looks away from him and begins picking at her fingernails. "Sometimes at night, I can like.... hear Jay."

Tim blinks a few times in confusion. "I'm sorry, did you just say-"

"I know it sounds crazy!" Jessica looks up at him, looking slightly hysterical. "I know he's dead! But sometimes when I'm half asleep at night it's like I can almost hear him talking."

"Do you think it's a dream?"

"I've told my therapist about it and he certainly thinks so, but... fuck, Tim! I don't know! For a while I thought four years of my life were a dream and they ended up being real!"

Tim nods. "Right, sorry. So we assume everything is real until proven made up?"

Jessica sighs, slumping back into the couch. "I guess?" She rubs at her temples. "What a way to live life, huh?"

 

-THE CHAPTER ENDS THERE-


	2. Remembrance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to split it into 3 part because I had too many ideas for just 2

Tim awoke with a start. He had a moment of panic as he didn't recognize where he was until the events of the day prior came flooding back to him. He was safe, he was at Jessica's house, he had taken his pills-

Oh yeah. He sat up and immediately regretted it. He must have slept weird, his back and neck complaining with every move he made. God, Tim hated being old. He reached over to where his bag was sitting on the chair and pulled his pill bottle out of the side pocket. He took two and washed them down with the (slightly stale tasting) glass of water sitting on the bedside table. He laid back down and stared at the ceiling. 

Tim knew he had to talk to Jessica about everything today. He was 99% certain that Jessica was the person in the skull mask and the sooner he could confront her about it, the sooner they could figure out why her pills weren't working. He started to get a cold, creeping feeling on the back of his neck as he wondered if his pills would stop being effective as well, and if his own masked persona would return. Yeah, it'd had been a long time, but who was to say the longer he spent back here, the less effective the treatment would become? Maybe Jessica was becoming more susceptible to the Operator's influence due to her never leaving the area. Tim groaned and dragged a hand down his face.

There was no point in diving down the rabbit hole of crazy theories. All he could do was recount what he knew for sure and investigate from there. Tim snorts out a laugh, standing up from the bed. Investigate? God, he really was turning into Jay. He pulled some clothes from his bag and started to get dressed, running what he knew for sure through his mind as he did so.

Jessica has been taking her pills, but they've been getting less effective. A masked person had been spotted around Rosswood park, and had been rescuing victims of a "Tall Man", who was more than likely the Operator. Jess had admitted to having blackouts, auditory hallucinations, increased anxiety, insomnia, and agoraphobia. She'd stopped leaving her house completely, except for her doctor's appointments.

Not for the first time, Tim wonders how easy it would be to convince Jessica to just leave the area. She didn't necessarily have to go with Tim, just go somewhere far away from here, where she'd be safe. Tim briefly contemplates asking her to move in with him, but then promptly squashes the idea down. What a weird thing to ask, "oh hey, sorry you're getting stalked again by an evil trans-dimensional being that killed our friends and drove us both to insanity. Want to come move in with me? I promise I won't go crazy, put on a mask, and then kidnap you... again!" 

No, Jessica would probably be better staying with someone else. But maybe, Tim muses as he leaves his room, he can convince her to live a bit closer than 5 hours away. 

The house is quiet as he shuts his door and walks through the living room to the kitchen. Not unnaturally quiet, but a nice quiet. Tim quietly opens the fridge and finds a carton of eggs. He checks the date on them and deems them safe to eat. Moving on, he investigates the freezer and finds some bacon he assumes Jessica's roommate left behind. In no time, he has the coffee machine going and breakfast cooking on the stove. Tim is so preoccupied with making breakfast he almost doesn't notice Jessica walk in.

"Is that bacon?" Jessica asks, a smile on her face. She looks slightly more rested than yesterday, but the bags under her eyes still worry Tim.

"Yeah, I found it in your freezer. I think your roommate must've left it."

She laughs. "Probably. I don't remember buying that. Are you sure it's okay to eat?"

"It's bacon, it can't go bad."

"It's meat!" Jessica says, erupting into giggles again. She coughs and shakes her head. "Bleh."

Tim turns around. "You alright?"

"Yeah, just allergies I think. Woke up kind of stuffy today." She walks over to one of the cabinets by the fridge. "Do you want some toast?"

He nods and she grabs a half-gone loaf of bread out of the cabinet and pulls two slices from the bag. Then she grabs a cookie sheet from a drawer by the sink and moves towards the oven.

Tim moves out of the way. "Do you not have a toaster?"

"Zoe took it back to Florida, so this is how I've been making toast." She puts the cookie sheet in the oven and sets the temperature and a timer for five minutes. Tim notices she's babying her left arm.

"Your arm okay?"

She looks at him surprised, then rolls her shoulder, grimacing. "Yeah, I think I just slept on it weird. Getting old sucks."

Tim laughs. "I had the same thought when I woke up this morning."

Jessica throws her hand over her eyes dramatically. "Oh to be 20 again and have no joint pain at all!" They both laugh.  
\----  
They finish making breakfast and head to the living room to watch the morning news while they eat. The news itself is pretty boring at first, mostly just weather and a story of the fire department getting a donation to fix up the old firehouse. Tim mostly drowns it out and eats his breakfast, until a picture of a familiar looking skull face mask pops up on screen and makes him nearly choke on his coffee.

"More developments on the body found outside of a wrecked car earlier this morning. Police have just confirmed the identity of the man found beaten to death to be John Wilkinson, age 39. Police also have confirmed that Wilkinson was indeed trying to kidnap a 6 year old boy before he was stopped by an unknown assailant. Police also confirm they have spoken to the boy, who was found safe outside the Sheriff's office before the body was discovered three miles away on Miller Road. The boy claims the person in the skull mask pulled Wilkinson from the car, and used a rock to kill Wilkinson. The boy also told police that the masked individual rescued him from the car after causing Wilkinson to swerve off the road in the first place, and told the boy not to look at the body."

The news anchor took a moment to collect herself before continuing. "This is the third attempted kidnapping this individual has stopped, but police continue to warn the public how dangerous this individual is and that if you see the quote 'masked vigilante', you are to call the Sheriff immediately and stay away from them."

The news cut to a commercial and Tim felt as shaken up as the news anchor had looked. He turned to Jessica, who was absentmindedly scrolling on her phone. "Does that happen a lot?"

Jessica looks up, a bit startled. "Huh?"

Tim motions to the TV. "The masked person. Do they really kill people?"

"I guess so?" She shrugs. "Most of the time, they just help lost kids and teenagers out of the woods or whatever, but yeah there's been a few reports of them attacking kidnappers."

"How are you so nonchalant about this?" Tim asked exasperatedly.

Jessica shrugs again. "The people who get killed? They're not very good people. The last guy who they got was a sex offender with an offense list a mile long. Who knows what would have happened to the little girl he grabbed if the person in the mask hadn't jumped in."

Tim's jaw had dropped. "It's murder."

"Maybe so, but they deserved it." There's a steel to Jessica's voice that reminds Tim of Alex so much that he suddenly can't be in the same room as her anymore. 

He stands up from the couch. "I'm gonna go shower."

Jessica looks back at her phone. "Alright. If you need soap or anything, Zoe's ex-boyfriend left all his crap here and I haven't thrown it out yet. It's in the linen closet." He nods and headed to the bathroom, eager to get out of the awkwardness that settled in.  
\----  
After a lengthy debate with himself in the shower and as he's getting dressed, Tim decides not to confront Jessica about the masked person again. Not only has she been killing people, actual human people, morally questionable or otherwise, but Tim fears that if he brings it up again, it could really cause tension between the two of them. And honestly, he had no room to judge her. He was just as much a murderer as she was. The only thing he could do was keep an eye on her and try to convince her to leave with him.

Once dressed, Tim left his room and walked back out to the living room where Jessica was typing on her laptop. A few folders were lying open on the coffee table in front of her, and she had a stack of papers sitting next to her on the couch. She looked up as he entered, gave him a small smile, and went back to her work.

Tim cleared his throat. "You, uh... You ready to go?"

"Go?" Jessica looked up from her laptop, looking confused.

"Grocery shopping?"

Jessica snapped her fingers. "Oh yeah! I knew I was forgetting something. Just give me a few minutes to finish up and go get dressed, and I'll be ready." She quickly saved her work and started to put the papers back into the folders on the coffee table. Tim sat down in one of the other chairs and checked his phone. No notifications as usual, but it didn't hurt to check. Jessica stood up from the couch and stretched, her back popping loudly. Tim winced but thankfully she didn't notice. She walked to the hallway and Tim heard her door close. After a few more minutes of Tim scrolling through his phone, Jessica came back out, bedhead brushed out and wearing actual jeans and a t shirt instead of sweats. She'd showered last night before she went to bed, mostly to stop Tim from bugging her about it. She looked a lot better than she had yesterday. Jessica grabbed her purse and Tim got his keys from his backpack in his room and they left the house, Jessica locking the door behind them.

The drive to the store was a relatively quiet one. As they pulled out of the driveway, Jessica switched the radio from the usual oldies station Tim had it on to a top 40 pop station and laughed at Tim's exaggerated eyeroll. A pop song came on that she apparently knew and she started to hum along, drumming her fingers on the door while she watched the passing scenery out the window. In Tim's opinion, it wasn't a very good song, kind of boring in a musical sense, but Jess liked it, so he turned the volume up slightly, causing the woman to absolutely beam at him from the passenger seat.

The Walmart was only a mile from Jessica's house, so they got there in pretty good time. Tim grabbed a cart abandoned in a parking spot (seriously, the cart corrals are RIGHT THERE. WHY WOULD ANYONE JUST LEAVE THEM THERE?!) and they headed in. Jessica pulled up her shopping list on her phone and led him to the produce section. She grabbed a few bags of pre-packaged salad, and a bag of baby carrots before moving on to the fruit. Jessica directed him to grab a thing of bananas while she got some apples. JEssica picked up a grapefruit and weighed it in her hands before turning and laughing at the grimace on Tim's face.

"Not a fan of grapefruit?" She giggled, putting the fruit back.

"Not really, they're kind of gross."

"That's fair. Also, the one's here aren't very good looking, especially for that price." She checked her list. "C'mon, we need bread and some canned stuff."

They continue shopping for everyday groceries, as well as ingredients for a chicken pasta dish that Jessica plans to have for dinner tonight. No one in the store gives either of them a second look, which Tim is eternally grateful for. Not just for his anxiety, but Jessica's too. For the first time in a long time, Tim feels like just a normal person doing normal person things.

So of course it comes to an end rather abruptly.

They're in the back of the store, by the dairy products. Jessica asks him a question, probably what kind of creamer he likes in his coffee, but he's too focused on something else to pay attention. In a lot of grocery stores, there are bulletin boards for the community to put up signs on, like ads for mowing or babysitting services, signs announcing garage sales or posters for missing pets.

The poster that has caught Tim's eye is a missing poster, but not one for a lost pet. His stomach sinks as he walks towards the bulletin board.

"MISSING" the sign reads. "ALEX KRALIE, AGE 26. LAST SEEN MARCH 2009."

Alex smiles at Tim from the picture on the sign, looking almost exactly like how he had when they met, bowl cut and everything. Tim could almost hear him bitching about the trailer music or Tim and Sarah's shitty acting. Suddenly, Tim is in Benedict Hall with a camera in one hand and a knife in the other. He can hear Alex taunting him as he's running through the dilapidated building, saying that it's all Tim's fault everyone is dead. That he's the one who led it to him. It's all his fault, all his fault, his fault his fault his fault his fault-

There's a hand on his shoulder and Tim jolts. He's back in the store, standing in front of a bulletin board. Alex is still dead and his missing poster still stares back at him. It's still Tim's fault-

"Tim?"

Tim lets out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. He turns to see Jessica standing behind him, looking worried. "Tim? Are you with me?"

"I- yeah. I'm okay now. Sor-"

"Don't apologize." Jessica puts both hands on his shoulders and makes him look at her. "Tell me where we are right now."

"Uh-" He takes a deep breath. "Walmart? Uh, Alabama. United States."

Jessica gives his shoulders a squeeze and lets go. "And you're safe."

"Safe-"

She nods. "Safe."

Safe.  
\----  
The shopping trip comes to an abrupt end after that. Tim keeps his head down while Jess quickly finishes up and they head to the checkout. While the cashier checks them out, Jessica reaches for Tim's hand and gives it a squeeze. He appreciates the grounding sensation it brings, and how warm her hand is in his. It's a good thing to focus on while they stand there. She does have to take her hand away to pay for the groceries and Tim busies himself with putting the bags in the cart. They exit the store and Jessica loads up the trunk while Tim walks the cart over to a cart corral. When he returns to the car, Jessica holds out her hand for his keys. He hands them to her without another word.

They pull out of the parking lot in silence, Jessica having turned off the radio as soon as she started the car. She waited until they were on the road before she actually spoke. "What happened?"

Tim sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I- I just saw the poster of Alex and it was like the nightmare started all over again. I was in Benedict Hall and he was yelling at me how it was my-" his voice cracked and he cleared his throat, "-my fault. All of it. Like I led it to all of you."

He expects her to defend him against Alex. He expects her to bring up the entries and try and make him feel less guilty for the whole situation. Hell, Tim expects her to call Alex several unrepeatable words and say it was him that led it to them, not Tim.

But she doesn't. Instead she says, "The Kralie's never stopped looking for him."

"Huh?"

"Jay and Seth's parents stopped putting up missing signs weeks after they disappeared. Amy's family waited longer, but after Alex disappeared everyone assumed she ran off with him. Sarah's mom moved after she disappeared, and I don't think Brian's dad ever noticed he was gone." Jessica looks over at Tim. "But Alex's parents keep putting up missing signs at every Walmart and every gas station in the state. Why do you think that it?"

Tim says nothing, continuing to stare at her in shock.

Jessica continues. "Because they can't accept the fact that he's dead. Sarah's mom buried an empty casket and left town. No one talks about Jay to his parents anymore. Everyone knows that they all died. I think the Kralie's know that Alex isn't coming back, but they refuse to accept it. And I think you refuse to too."

"Wha-"

"It happened, Tim. Something awful came into our lives, and it killed our friends. It's no one's fault, but you need to accept that they're gone and there's nothing we can do about it. We can't be haunted everytime we see a picture of Alex or talk about Jay. They're gone, and we need to move on."

That finally snaps him out of his shock and the remnants of his flashback in the store. "Y-You're right. I don't know if I can do it just like that but-"

Jessica shrugs. "It took me almost a year after I started remembering. At first I was angry at Alex, then you, then Jay, then Alex again. Then I realized that no matter how angry I was, there wasn't anything to gain from it. I wouldn't magically get better-" she coughed a bit, then continued, "and it wouldn't magically reverse itself and end up not have happened at all. I accepted that my friends were dead and that I was alive."

Tim nods, understanding, but not really sure what to say. Jessica looks over and gives him a half smile. "We'll be okay."

 

-THE CHAPTER ENDS THERE-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed! Final chapter out next weekend!


	3. Reveal

The rest of the drive back from the store is a quiet one, aside from Jessica's occasional coughs. Tim had looked at her with worry, but Jessica had waved him off, saying she'd had a bad cold a few weeks prior and really hadn't gotten over it. He'd nodded, not wanting to bring up anything that could cause an argument. He figures he should stay on her good side and try to get her to move far away from here. Tim thinks of a plan to talk to her about it while they eat dinner tonight.

They pull into the driveway and they get out of the car. Tim starts unloading the car and Jessica takes a few bags from him and goes to unlock the front door. He follows and they set the bags in the kitchen. After two trips, they get all the bags in the kitchen. Jessica turns on the TV in the living room to a music channel to fill the silence. Tim starts putting the cold stuff in the fridge. Jessica grabs one and checks it before rummaging around in a few more. Satisfied with what she found, she turns to Tim.

"I need to go put these in the linen closet."

Tim raises an eyebrow. "Alright?"

"Also not to be crass, but I need to pee like a racehorse. I'll be right back," Jessica laughs and Tim joins her.

"Don't fall in." She smacks him in the arm lightly and he laughs harder.

She leaves the kitchen and he moves on to the dry goods. He's not sure where she keeps which foods, so he just picks a cabinet at random and fills it. It'd be easier if she had a pantry, but he really has no room to judge. His first apartment was a lot worse than this. Once he's run out of all viable room in the the cabinet, he picks a new one. He opens it up, and sees her pill bottle. Tim ignores it, then immediately does a double take and picks it up.

Jessica walks back into the kitchen, humming to the music on TV then stops to stare at Tim. "What's wrong?"

"Your pill bottle." He says, turning around and shaking it. It rattles loudly. "It's completely full.

"What? But that-" She begins coughing. "That's impossible," she chokes out.

"It says the last refill was months ago, Jess." He shakes his head in disbelief. He isn't sure why he's getting mad about this but he can't really stop. "You said you were taking your meds!"

Jessica continues coughing, bracing herself on the counter. She gasps a breath and wheezes out "I thought I was-" She coughs up blood onto the counter.

Tim's anger is gone as quickly as it came. "Jessica-" He takes a step towards her, dropping the bottle to the ground. Jessica sinks to her knees, clutching her mouth as she violently coughs. Tim kneels beside her, not sure what to do, call 911, get her some water-

The TV turns to static in the living room.

Tim's head snaps up as Jessica falls to the ground and begins to seize. The static on the TV seems to grow louder, and with it, voices in Tim's head start yelling at him.

"TIM," screamed a voice that sounded an awful lot like Jay. "PLEASE, HELP US"

"TIM" a new voice joined Jay's, this time sounding like Brian. 

Tim clutched at his ears, hoping to shut the voices up, but there was no stopping them. They were loud and they were insistent on being inside his head. Tim's vision began to blur, and he drowsily noticed he also began to cough. Jay and Brian continued yelling for him to help them, to come to them. He shook his head to clear it, and grabbed Jessica's arm. He knew she really shouldn't be moved while she was having a seizure, but there was no time for that. They had to get out of that house.

Pulling Jessica up, Tim carries her shaking body out of the kitchen. A tornado siren-like sound begins to screech through the house, or maybe just in his head. He can almost see the damn thing standing at the end of the hallway, staring at them as he runs out of the house. Thankfully, he still has his keys in his pocket from when Jessica had given them to him after unloading the groceries. Tim lays her in the backseat and all but dives into the driver's seat. He can see it in the window of the house. He floors it out of the driveway and speeds off.  
\----  
Jessica wakes up in the backseat to a setting sun. She glances around, trying to get her bearings. She sees Tim in the front seat, white-knuckling the steering wheel. She sits up and looks out the window. They're still in town, but on the opposite side of where her house is.

"Tim?"

He swears and nearly jumps out of his skin. Jessica is glad there isn't a car in front of them or they definitely would have crashed into them. He looks in the rearview mirror at her and she gives him an apologetic smile.

"How are you feeling?" He asks. She climbs up over the center console to sit in the front seat, albeit with some difficulty. Her limbs feel 10 times heavier than normal.

"I'm alright I guess. A bit groggy." She brushes the hair out of her eyes and puts on her seatbelt. "What happened?"

"What do you remember?" Tim countered. 

Jessica huffed out a breath. "Uh, we got back from getting groceries. I put some stuff in the bathroom, then I came back out." She furrowed her brows. "Then it all went black."

Tim runs a hand over his face and sighs. "It showed up at your house."

"WHAT?!"

He flinches at her sudden volume. "I found your pills in the cabinet, and then your started coughing. The TV went all static-y and then-"

"My pills?"

"The bottle was full, Jess."

"That's impossible."

"I held them in my hand. The bottle was full and the last refill you got was months ago."

Jessica buries her face in her hands. "No, that's impossible. I know I've been taking my meds. I remember every night going and getting the bottle..."

"... And?"

"And opening it."

Tim looks at her. "And?" He asks quietly.

Tears begin to stream down her face as she looks at him, open mouthed. "And I'd close the bottle."

Before he can say anything, she chokes out "I thought I was taking them... I thought I was getting better."

Those words punch Tim in the stomach. He knows exactly how that feels, feeling like you're getting better when in actuality you're losing your mind more than you know. He reaches over and offers his hand. She takes it gratefully, and aside from Jessica's few sniffles, they ride in silence for a few minutes.

"How long have we been driving?" Jessica speaks up at last.

Tim looks at the clock on the dash. "An hour and a half maybe. You were kind of... seizing until we were 10 minutes away from the house, then you just kind of passed out."

"Why haven't we left the city?"

Tim blows out a breath and glances at her sheepishly. "I kind of dropped your pill bottle in the kitchen as we were leaving. I wanted to wait a while and go back."

Jessica nods, too tired to be angry at him for leaving her medicine. "Do we have a plan?"

"Well, you could pack a bag and we could go stay at-"

"a motel?" she finishes for him. They look at each other for a second then immediately burst into laughter.

Tim does that little half laugh, half cough thing you do when you're trying to stop laughing. "I mean, yeah. That was kind of my plan for the night."

"I feel like I could sleep anywhere. I'd rather head back to the house though."

"What? Why?"

"We're not any safer in a motel." She shrugs and yawns. "Plus we can figure out what to do tomorrow morning and leave from my house."

They debate a little longer, Jessica nearly falling asleep a few times before Tim finally agrees to head back to the house.

"But I check it out as soon as we get there and you take your pills as soon as I get them to you. Okay?"

"Okay," Jessica yawns, leaning her head against the window. Her eyes snap open and she sits up. "Hang on, I just got an idea."

"Yeah?"

"Tonight when we go to sleep, we should set alarms to check on each other."

"What, like every hour or so?" Tim's pretty impressed by the idea. He never would've thought of it.

Jessica shrugs again. "Hour works for me. We can just open our doors and make sure we're okay at the same time. If one of us sleeps through it, the other person can check their room."

"Sounds good to me."  
\----  
The sun has set completely by the time they reach the house. It's that weird time of year where the time is set back to "normal" but it feels off to everyone. Tim gets out of the car, Jessica remaining in the passenger seat, and he walks up the driveway. The front door is still cracked open and he can hear the music channel on the TV playing. Tim opens the door cautiously, but doesn't hear anything. He doesn't feel anything either. He walks into the living room slowly, looking around and finds nothing. Tim makes his way to the kitchen, then back to the hallway with the bedrooms and bathroom. Still nothing. Satisfied, Tim leaves the house and headed back to the car.

He finds Jessica asleep in the passenger seat, her unlocked phone on her lap. It seemed she'd been in the middle of setting her hourly alarms for the night when she fell asleep. Tim smiled and opened the door carefully. He picked her up bridal style, careful of her head and the top of the car door. He carried her inside and set her on her bed. Tim pulls the blanket up and leaves the room. He heads back out to the car, closes the doors and locks them. As soon as he's back in the house, he turns the TV to a quieter music channel and begins to put the forgotten groceries away. He finds the pill bottle where it rolled under the fridge, and writes a note for Jessica to take two pills when she wakes up. He sticks the note to the bottle and takes it to her room. She's still snoring lightly when he enters, so he leaves the bottle on her nightstand, along with a glass of water.

By the time he's done cleaning up the kitchen, it's late enough for him to go to bed. They hadn't had dinner, and if Tim was being honest with himself, the events of the day had really left him without an appetite. If Jessica was hungry when she woke up, he'd make something for her, but he really wasn't feeling like eating. Maybe it was the remaining feelings of panic from the incident with the missing poster at Walmart, maybe it was the whole attack or the hearing his dead friend's voices. He wasn't sure. Tim swore under his breath and popped a piece of gum into his mouth. He really needed a cigarette.

Tim quickly changed into his sweatpants and sleep shirt. He sat on the bed for a while just running the days events in his head. A part of him was angry that this was part of his life again, while the other only regretted they hadn't caught the damn thing on camera while they escaped the house. Tim laughed and shook his head. That part of his brain was definitely possessed by Jay. In all seriousness, he was just glad Jessica didn't have to deal with this alone like he had as a kid. He set the alarm on his phone and turned off the light. Hopefully this would all be over soon.  
\----  
The first alarm went off earlier than Tim expected. He grumbled as he sat up, feeling like he'd just closed his eyes. He stretched and walked to his door. Jessica opened hers just as he opened his and they both laughed in surprise.

"You alright?" Tim asked, voice thick with sleep.

She nodded. "Yeah. Thanks for the water and stuff." She yawned. "I'm probably gonna put on pajamas and brush my teeth now that I'm up."

He nodded. "See you in an hour."

"You too." Tim closed the door and went back to bed.

The second alarm was more of the same, the two of them opening their doors at the same time, this time Jessica in a large black hoodie and leggings. After checking that the other was alright, the exchanged pleasantries and went back into their separate rooms. Tim sort of regretted saying yes to the "every hour" alarm idea, since he felt like he was barely getting any sleep. He might as well just stay up, right? As soon as he laid back down though, he was out like a light.

The third alarm made Tim hate this idea even more. It was keeping them safe and making their worries subside, but oh god at what cost? His back popped loudly as he stood up from his bed and headed to the door. He opened it and stared at Jessica's closed door. He waited for it to open, growing more and more uneasy. Tim crossed the small hallway and tapped on the door frame lightly. Nothing could be heard from the inside. Tim opened the door quietly and peeked it. Jessica was sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes and holding her phone. She looked up.

"Oh, sorry. I hit snooze" She gestured with the phone. "You alright?"

"Tired, but doing good. You?"

Jessica yawned. "Same."

Tim nodded. "Good. Night."

"Night."

He backed into the hallway and shut the door before returning to his room. The worst part about this plan was that his bed already lost its warmth by the time he got back to it. Along with the intrusive thoughts about everything that had gone down during the day, Tim knew he wasn't going to get any sleep besides the small cat naps he could get in between the alarms. He sighed.

It was going to be a long night.  
\----  
Five minutes before the fourth alarm, Tim was awoken by a thump from Jessica's room. He quickly got up and rushed across the hall to throw open her door.

Jessica's bed was empty. Her window was open, curtains blowing in the wind.

Tim ran over to the window and looked out. He saw a figure in black racing across the backyards. He quickly pulled a mental map up in his head and groaned in frustration. He knew exactly where she was going. He hurried back to his room and pulled on his shoes and a jacket. He grabbed his keys and ran to the car, pulling the door shut behind him. Tim pulled out of the driveway quickly. Thankfully no one was on the road, and he drove as fast as the speed limit would allow him, along the familiar streets leading to a place that never really left him.

The parking lot and front of the park still looked the same, even after all these years. He wanted to kick the sign reading "Rosswood Park" as he got out of his car, but restrained himself. He really didn't have time. Tim pulled his jacket around him tighter and began looking around There was another car in the parking lot, sitting empty. He briefly wondered who else could be in the park at this time at night before shaking his head and moving his attention to the treeline. He saw a figure in black dart across the field and disappear into the trees.

Tim debated chasing Jessica into the woods, but decided against it. Jess was a lot faster than him, plus in her current state, she probably knew exactly where she was going and knew where to avoid going. With Tim's luck, the amount of visibility currently available to him, and how long it had been since he was in the park, he would probably end up twisting an ankle or something a lot worse. He decided to wait by the playground, watching the treeline and waiting for Jessica to reappear. Tim popped two pills in his mouth, swallowed them dry, and sat on the slide to wait.

It didn't take long before he saw Jessica appear, the white of her skull mask looking like a beacon in the dark. She was half supporting, half dragging another person with her, probably the owner of the other car in the parking lot. The two approached the playground, Jessica seemingly struggling with the other person's weight. She leaned him up against a tree directly across from the playground and stretched her back, looking up at the sky. She hadn't seemed to notice Tim yet, so he quietly got up from the slide, and weighed his options. He could approach her slowly and try to talk to her, but that wouldn't work. He had never been responsive in his "masked" state, and he doubted Jessica was any different. He decided to do the only viable choice.

Tim charged her and tackled her to the ground.

There was a loud smack as her head hit the ground, and she made an "oof" noise as the wind was knocked out of her. Tim quickly sat up and tried to get off of her as fast as he could, not wanted to crush the poor thing. He looked at the other person, now sitting against the tree. He was a teenager, probably around 16 or 17, and he had a dazed look on his face. His nose was bleeding and he was shaking. If Tim had to guess, he'd say the kid went into the park at night as something to do that was "cool" and "rebellious" and ended up encountering the Operator. Tim shivered and brought his jacket closer to his body.

Jessica began to stir. She sat up and pulled the mask off, looking confused. She looked at Tim and the boy against the tree, and then looked around at their surroundings. Tim could practically see the gears turning in her head. He was about to tell her that he'd tell her later when she spoke up.

"We need to get out of here." Jessica said, starting to stand up. She groaned and Tim felt a little guilty.

"Where would we go?"

"Out of state? I don't know. Far away from here. We can take the kid with us if we have to. We just need to get going, now."

"That thing would kill us before we even hit state lines and you know it." He doesn't mean for it to sound as harsh as it does, and he winces. "Jessica-"

She's already lifting the boy up, with one of his arms on her shoulders. She's still struggling and he moves to help with the other arm. "Why hasn't it killed us then, Tim?"

They walk the boy to the car, Tim keeping a lookout for a ghostly white face in the darkness. "I don't know," he admits.

"It could've killed us tonight, while we were sleeping. Or just now. Or in the car earlier. Why hasn't it killed us yet?"

"I don't know."

"We're leaving town."

"Okay. Do you know where you want to go?"

They lay the boy down in the backseat. "I said we're leaving town. That sort of implies I'm going with you."

"O-oh. Right. Sorry." Tim feels incredibly stupid. 

The corners of Jessica's mouth twitch and she looks like she wants to smile. She closes the car door and motions for him to get in the driver's seat. They take off down the road, only stopping to drop the boy off at the police station by Jessica's house. The mask is hidden under the seat, and they tell the officer coming out to meet them that they found the boy on the side of the road while driving to a 24 hour store. Tim is actually kind of impressed at how quickly Jessica comes up with the lie, and how believable it is. Neither of them say it, but as they drive away, they both hope the kid stays safe. He'd been waking up as they left him with the officer, and they hoped he'd have enough sense to stay out of Rosswood for a long time. 

They make it back to Jessica's house and Tim helps her pack up her own car along with Tim's when she runs out of room. He watches her take two pills and wash them down with water. She even opens her mouth after and lifts her tongue to prove she's taken them. The sun is starting to rise as they get the last box into Tim's backseat. Jessica sits on her car's hood and calls her landlord, telling him that she's leaving early and the key's under a flowerpot in the garage. After the call, she stands up and stretches, and the two of them share a smile.

They've planned for Jessica to follow Tim, and for them to be on the phone with each other the whole drive so they can tell each other if their car needs gas or if they want food or something. Tim pulls out of the driveway, Jessica hot on his heels and they drive down the street. Right as they're about to leave the city limits, Jessica has him pull into an empty parking lot with a dumpster. They get out and Tim watches as Jessica throws the skull mask into the dumpster.

The stand in front of their idling cars for a few minutes as they watch the sun rise fully over the little town.

"It feels like goodbye," Jessica says. "Not just to the town but to everyone we knew."

Tim nods. He takes her hand. "I think it's like a new beginning."

She turns to him, a small smile growing on her face. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. This nightmare is over. It's a new chapter now." He takes one more look at the town, at the dark shadows of the park visible from the hill they're on. Then he sighs and turns to his car. "Or like a whole new book."

"'A whole new book'. I like the sound of that." Jessica huffs a laugh and walks back to her car.

They don't look back again for the rest of the drive.

 

-THE STORY ENDS THERE-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand so it ends*! Thank you all for reading!! Hope you all enjoyed!!!
> 
> *My friend who was sort of the beta reader/wall I bounced my ideas off of thought that Jess and Tim hearing the voices of their friends was going to end up revealing that Jay and Brian were still alive somehow and they had to go find them in Rosswood. That's not where I was going with that at all (I was mostly doing that to show them slipping back into their "masked" forms/starting to lose their minds due to not taking their pills and being close to the Operator) BUT now I can't get the idea out of my head and I want to write sort of a one-off alternate story where that happens. Would you guys be interested in reading that? Let me know!


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